The UK is finally taking measures to regulate tech companies
Tech companies currently have a lot of influence over today’s society and it seems to have happened so quickly that we haven’t really managed to get a grasp on it. Technology now has an influence on our spending habits, relationships, politics and even our mental health. These companies also have access to copious amounts of users’ data which is often collected without our knowledge and for the most part, they are free to use that how they wish. It’s easy to assume that with their power, the safety of their users’ data is paramount to tech companies, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In recent years, the news has been full of tech companies abusing their powers - from spreading fake news to selling children’s data for profit and there is no sign of authorities intervening.
With the above in mind, it’s fair to say that we are in desperate need of some form of policing on large tech firms and that is exactly what the government is planning to do. According to government insiders, steps are being made to introduce a new technology regulator to monitor how global tech firms manage their users’ data and whether they are carrying out anti-competitive practises. The regulator will be given powers to implement an enforceable code of conduct and hand out fines to those who fail to comply.
The UK is following in the footsteps of fellow EU countries who are taking measures to protect citizens from tech companies, as mainland Europe has been championed as a global leader when it comes to tech regulation. In a review conducted by the law firm Hogan Lovells, it was found that European countries had proposed nearly 200 new policies in the first half of 2019 at both an EU level and an individual level.
The move has been widely welcomed by the industry and its easy to see why. It’s clear that the biggest firms in the tech sector currently have far too much influence over the entire market. A report published by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that Google accounted for more than 90 per cent of all revenues earned from UK search advertising in 2018 and Facebook accounted for almost half of all the revenues earned from display advertising. Unfortunately, these two companies are also some of the worst offenders when it comes to the misuse their users’ data.
A clear example of this is Facebook’s involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal back in 2018. The company failed to protect its users when the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica harvested users’ personal information to influence the result of key elections, including the EU referendum and the 2016 US elections. It was also found later that year that the data of 50 million Facebook users had been breached from a weakness in Facebook’s code and once again, the company failed to protect their users and provide a clear explanation of why this had occurred.
Google also had their fair share of data breaches. In 2018, it was revealed that outside developers had potentially been able to access Google+ profiles thanks to a software glitch on the site and more recently in November 2019, there was a ‘technical issue’ where users of Google’s photo service had their private videos sent to strangers.
In late 2019, Andrea Leadsom, the former secretary of state for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) pledged to bring out a new white paper that will include the proposed legislation in the first quarter of this year. Leadsom has since stepped down in a cabinet reshuffle, but it was announced that Ofcom would be responsible for enforcing the regulations on social media and tech firms.
Unlike its European counterparts, the UK government has been somewhat apathetic towards the practises of tech firms and these companies have been getting away with far too much. It’s encouraging to see these steps are finally being made to protect citizens’ online data and hold tech firms accountable for their actions.
